THE1950ss
0140 Home Sickness
The worst aspect of my time at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was just how homesick I was. It was the first time I had been away from home for such a long time. Worse still, I was well aware that I had left home for ever. I well knew I was subsequently going up to Imperial College, and then who knew where! So I was all too well aware that there was no getting back to home again!
Indeed, waking up on the morning I was to leave for Farnborough was one of the worst experiences of my life. I don’t know why the truth of the matter hadn’t hit home before, but it was only when I woke that morning that I at last realised what lay ahead. The safety and love of home would soon be gone for ever. It was a lovely sunny morning and I looked out from my bedroom window; thinking that would be the last time I would be able to appreciate this view - as, in effect, it was.
At Farnborough this home sickness hit me worst at night, particularly in the dark nights when I went back to the hostel. As I went back, I dreamt of walking back to my home. The road through the hostel it was lit somewhat like the roads through the village at home, and I envisaged turning the next corner to see The Green. It seemed that the road just ahead of me was tantalizingly close to home, just yards from being able to walk through our front door. It was a terrible delusion and helped me not at all.
Unfortunately at the RAE there was little to do in the hostel. There was a television, but you had to watch what the majority wanted -- and which was usually ITV. I can only remember watching pop music programmes and, for once, being enchanted by the girl who sang ‘The day that the rains came down’. But apart from that it was mind-blowingly boring.
As a result I whiled away some of the time by going to dancing classes. It was a select company, just myself and the RAE groundsman, Jim. The lessons were conducted in an old timber hut by the railway station. There we danced to the sound of a rather rickety old radiogram. On the other hand, the teaching was excellent. The younger teacher was -- in particular – also very sexy. It was quite an experience dancing with her. I got on quite well, in fact, and used to follow on my session with the dance lessons taken by practising with the Goldstar dancers who came to the next session. This again was delightful, since they followed your every movement.
Unfortunately, this was very bad for normal dancing. When I actually did get on the dance-floor, I found it very difficult to dance with women who didn't know what they should do! In particular, Pat desperately tried to lead - which was a major problem for me and we have never really taken dancing seriously since.
However it was the time when rock-and-roll jive was coming to fashion, and I was good at this. Furthermore, since it didn't require holding Pat tightly, I even managed to overcome her leading!
When we met in Spain, almost immediately afterwards, I well remember dancing in a nightclub and doing some quite elegant jive dancing. This was the time when jive was only just coming into Spain. Throwing myself into it, I was thoroughly enjoying myself when I suddenly noticed that we were in the middle of a circle of people. Everyone else had stopped dancing and had clustered round watching what we would do! I had seen this in teen-movies, but I never expected it to happen to myself.
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